September 04, 2007

Dysthymic Brands & Expert Intro

As part of our philosophy that companies should be marketing the way people make friends, we have built a strong connection to the world of psychology. Mike Reiter is one of our closest psychological experts that has been helping us build our thinking while keeping it grounded in the tenets of friendship. Fairly regularly Mike will be chiming in with psychological terms and theories that connect to branding, and Karen, Brandon and I will build some direct connections to the marketing world.

The concept of Dysthymic brands is one of the more interesting ones we've come across in the past several months. How many brands can you think of that are in trouble with reputation or sales, but not in quite enough trouble to drive action? How many executives acknowledge problems but avoid embracing a realistic solution? That's classic dysthymia.

So why is this important for marketing and branding? Because marketers typically look for the true depressive situations, the crisis indicators to solve with a major campaign. But minor chronic issues are just as important and costly for a brand over time yet can be addressed early on with a shift in thinking.